Sunday, February 27, 2022 (Court Day #473)

My wife had arranged for a landscape designer to come and meet with us at 9 a.m. this morning. Fortunately, Tom Sherwood had agreed to open up Derby Park for me. My wife and I didn’t finish with the landscaper until about 10:45 a.m. When I arrived at Derby Park at 11 a.m., things were in full swing. There were enough players that Tom had decided to have the games play only to 9 instead of to 11.

Players waiting to play. The 6’7” one is Charles.

I got into a game fairly quickly with George, Tom B., and Charles. We ended up playing a few games together. After one game, George paid me a compliment, saying that I was very good at the net. George does give compliments, but only for things he truly believes. Nice to hear.

Ouch

I had a game with Eric against George and Charles. Fun game. We won, but in that game, I pulled that tendon/muscle in the back of my hand again. This is the fourth time. The first time was at work a few months ago, the three remaining times have been while playing. It’s not crippling, but it is painful. The good news is that it fades over time and didn’t bother me an hour later.

Oh, and in this game, Charles had a great shallow cross crosscourt toward my left. I had to run up and stretch to hit the ball—which I did. I was watching a pro match on YouTube and on a shot like that, the receiver returned the ball by dinking crosscourt. What did I do? Popped the ball up which George put away for a winner. Work yet to do!

Red?

There was a woman who signed up in red/advanced. I’ve played games with her a few times recently and knew she had no business as a red. The game was the woman, Rick, Allan K., and me. I told Allan, ”I’ll play with you.” Recognizing a possible imbalance, he asked “Will that be fair?” I responded, ”I don’t know if it’ll be fair.” Maybe Rick was playing lights-out. Or Allan was having a bad day. Or a meteor might kill me mid-game. The outcome was as I expected. 9-2. (With the number of people, play was to 9.) I overheard her talking to someone else afterward, ”It was a fiasco.” She signed up in blue for her next game. Lesson learned.

Still Games

I played games until 1:30 then took care of stowing up the club property. When Rick and I left at 1:45, there were 12 players still on the courts, something that was unheard of pre-pandemic. These players were four newbies and eight of the local Derby Girls roller derby team.

I was very happy to be back playing with my Rogue 2 paddle!


Number of days on a court: 473
Number of total hours: 2,251

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